Leaving a club in decent shape for the next man in would surely be a sign of a good manager. Pep did that but Fergie did not
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You’re just teasing me with that one you slut.
Stop lad. Pep destroyed Ferguson twice in the CL final… it was a schooling.
Ferguson was great. Pep is elite.
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Ferguson took seven years to win the league with a team which had massive financial advantages over other clubs and at a time when English club football was at a very low ebb. All the big clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Everton and even Leeds had faded off the scene by 1992/93. The Leeds team that beat Manchester United to the title in 1992 was probably the worst team to win the league in my lifetime. Only a patched up Aston Villa team under Big Ron mounted any sort of resistance the following season. By 1995 Blackburn were winning the league with a midfield of Stuart Ripley, Mark Atkins, Tim Sherwood and Jason Wilcox and sometimes Jeff Kenna, and Tony Gale and Ian Pearce at centre half.
It’s a serious black mark against him.
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Operation Puerto
Was that when Rio dodged a drug test? Stam was done for drugs on his first day out in Italy after coming from Man U.
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They hadn’t won it or in reality come close to winning it for nearly 20 years when he arrived ffs!
The Aberdeen achievements are phenomenal too. Have any of the other managers in consideration for the greatest done anything comparable
All sorts of wrong as usual. Staam was done for nandolone a few months after coming to italy, coincidentally at the exact same time that pep guardiola was done for nandrolone. But sure look, a fella that doesnt want to think wont.
The season before Ferguson arrived Manchester United won the first ten games in a row and were miles out in front of the league. Then Bryan Robson got injured. In 1984 they went into April leading the league. They finished second under Dave Sexton in 1980 and weren’t far off winning it under Tommy Docherty in 1976. They never finished lower than fourth under Big Ron.
There was no excuse for Ferguson’s 11th and 13th place finishes in 1989 and 1990.
Liverpool and Arsenal fell off the map, Everton had already done so the way was clear, and Mark Robins and later English’s football’s brave new world of monetisation saved him.
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The Aberdeen European win looks admirable but Dundee Utd were robbed of an appearance in a European Cup final around the same time so Scottish club football was as at its peak then. Fergie surfed on that wave.
His dominance of the PL meant he could rest players from atcthe weekend from Feb when the knockout stages started in Europe. Klopp and Pep were bloodying each others noses domestically up until May while going farther in Europe than Ferguson.
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You’d have to argue also that Ferguson’s claim of having “knocked Liverpool off their fucking perch” was blatantly untrue, when George Graham had already done just that.
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It’s a measure of Fergusons brilliance that in 2025, he’s still occupying and ruining lads life, even at the age of 83.
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Graeme Souness knocked Liverpool off their perch more than anybody.
Ferguson managed through some major changes in English football which mostly structurally benefitted Manchester United - the first one was the transformation away from being a game of pissheads who played on the weekends. The second one was the monetisation of the game. The third one was the globalisation of the game. The fourth was the move towards ultra-monetisation and an elite coterie of super franchises.
English football in the 1980s and the culture and the business set up around it wasn’t that different to what it had been in the 1930s. The changes over the next 20 years were epochal and they benefitted the already strong massively.
1992 was probably the weakest English club football has ever been but it was the start of a massive shift that would benefit the monetisable clubs. ie. the biggest clubs. Whichever of the big clubs got ahead at that particular point would have a massive inbuilt structural advantage going forward.
What has partly fecked up Manchester United is the emergence of a petro-state run lab experiment across town. That was the next paradigm shift. The other big paradigm shift was the data-isation of football which was beginning to happen in England just as Ferguson left. But it’s one Liverpool have been able to keep up with and pass out those who fell behind when that shift occurred. Manchester United were left behind by the data-isation shift worse than any other big club.
Its incredible how much he achieved really.
Id say you could list 100 of them easily.
- Won a European cup with 5 academy graduates.
- Turned Ronaldo from a prancing show pony into one of the greatest players of all time.
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Did he turn any others? Why didn’t he turn Nani?
Ferguson turned Anderson into one of the greats.
You’re in danger of complacency after a period of dominance and more resistant to change. Souness tried to bring in pasta and professionalism to Liverpool years before Wenger arrived but his old teammates had a bagful of medals and wanted to keep fish and chips and cans on the bus. The boardroom never moved with the times and developed the stadium or monetized the “brand”. Even as late as 2005 the club shop was closed the day after the Istanbul final.
Yanited had great success through old school man management and scouting under Ferguson so had no time for laptop nerds. Gill leaving at the same time as Ferguson was also critical as he was a shrewd operator who wielded great influence in the FA. Moyes then gutted Ferguson’s support staff and most of the pillars of success were gone.
He’s mostly remembered for denying Ronaldo that goal by touching the ball in an offside position.